Chapter 151 - Episode 146: Daily Life in the Arqvist Territory ③ The Case of Damian and Christy
"Fuwaaa~"
"Now, Damian-san, your manners are poor while eating."
Morning. While eating breakfast received from a maid in the dining hall for servants and live-in retainers, Damian let out a wide yawn, prompting Christy to caution him.
"Hmm, sorry."
While responding, Damian's mind was full of thoughts regarding new developments. Right now, he was thinking about an advanced model of the Crossbow for long-range sniping.
"Apologizing half-heartedly again... You're thinking about something else, aren't you? Look, your hands have stopped. If you don't finish eating quickly, you'll be late getting to the workshop, and you'll trouble the maids."
"Ye~s, I know."
The live-in retainers in the mansion were currently only Damian and Christy, so they usually ate breakfast and dinner together. It was a common sight for Christy to nag the dawdling Damian.
Around the time Damian finished his breakfast while being rushed by her, Rosetta, who was in charge of cooking, arrived.
"Damian-san, here is today's lunch box~"
"Thanks~ Rosetta."
Since Damian did not return to the mansion until night once he started working in the workshop (and sometimes, even when night fell, he refused to return and had to be dragged back to the mansion by his subordinate craftsmen), he was given sandwiches and such as a lunch box like this.
Then, Rosetta handed the same thing to Christy. Since this mansion was her workplace, she shouldn't need a lunch box, but Damian glanced sideways, wondering if she was going somewhere for work today.
Then, Damian went outside through the back door of the mansion (only the lord and his wife or guests could use the front entrance). Since all his tools and materials were kept in the workshop, the only thing he held in his hand was his lunch box.
Then, following Damian, Christy also left the mansion. In addition to a lunch box, she carried a bag that looked like work tools.
"Now, let us go."
"...Hmm?"
He didn't know why she was going out of her way to call out to him, but thinking that she indeed seemed to be going somewhere for work, Damian walked aimlessly toward the workshop located by the riverbank in the southwest of the capital.
Christy followed slightly behind him.
Damian walked, and Christy walked behind him.
At the timing where there was nothing left ahead but the workshop, Damian stopped and looked back.
"Hey Christy, do you have some business at the workshop?"
"Hah!?"
When Damian asked that, Christy showed a reaction that seemed like a mixture of anger, exasperation, and surprise. Not understanding why she would make such a sound, Damian became bewildered.
"...By any chance, Damian-san, did you forget that I told you last week that since I will be taking over the workshop's clerical work and accounting from now on, you should secure a workroom for me and gather the materials there? I believe I also told you that today was my first day of work at the workshop. That is why I am walking with you."
Christy spoke rapidly while trembling. Listening to her words, Damian made a face that said I'm in trouble.
Since the scale of the workshop had become considerably large, it was decided that it would be better to place a civil servant there; thus, Christy, who had some free time after the work of commercializing beet sugar had settled down, was to visit the workshop several days a week to handle accounting and clerical work.
Naturally, this had been conveyed to Damian, the person in charge of the workshop, but his memory had been immediately overwritten by thoughts of development.
"You might... have said that."
"It's not 'might,' I did say it! ...Which means, my workroom isn't prepared, is it? I'll have to gather the financial materials at the workshop myself and organize them myself, won't I!?"
"That... is correct. I'm sorry."
"Haa~~~"
Christy let her shoulders slump, hung her head, and let out a deep, deep sigh.
In exchange for his talent as a craftsman, Damian was severely lacking in social life skills. According to Knight Commander Yuri, "It's better to treat him as if he were some kind of monster that can speak." If he were a monster rather than a human, one could say he was doing quite well just by admitting his mistake and apologizing out loud.
"...Well, I suspected it would turn out like this somehow. I'm being dispatched specifically so that these things don't happen in the future, so it's fine for this time."
Walking alongside Christy, who had started walking again with a resigned face, Damian tried to change the subject in his own way of being considerate.
"B-besides, so Christy is the one doing the workshop's administrative management. I totally thought someone like Anna would just take it over."
Until now, the workshop's operating expenses and weapon production numbers had been managed collectively by Anna, based on simple records kept by the craftsmen, including Damian.
"Anna-san is the general manager of the civil servants, so she cannot leave the mansion, and she'll be going on maternity leave next month. I don't have any big jobs right now, and since I've officially become a retainer, my position makes it no problem to handle confidential information like new weapons, so it's just right."
When it came to work involving the territory's military, it was better for those holding important duties to have a corresponding status. Christy, who had been gloriously released from slave status and became a retainer, was perfectly suited to be entrusted with the management duties of the workshop, which was the keystone of weapon production.
"I see. Come to think of it, Christy didn't become Noein-sama's, like Matilda, while remaining a slave. You seemed so attached to him, so I totally thought you wanted to become that."
"...Damian-san, you say that too?"
Christy had been asked the same thing by several people before. Each time, she gave the same answer.
"To me, Noein-sama is a great lord whom I should serve, and working for Noein-sama and the Arqvist territory is the joy of my life, but, well, it's not that I personally adore him as a woman. In the first place, Noein-sama probably wouldn't seek that."
Immediately after receiving the harsh but effective "education" from Noein in the past, such thoughts had crossed her mind. She had been envious of Matilda, who loved and was loved by such a great and merciful master, and thought she would be happy if she could become like that someday.
However, while working by their side and watching them, that thought changed. Seeing Matilda, who offered her entire heart, body, and life to Noein, and Noein, who accepted that love—which would seem too heavy to an outsider—with a calm face, she felt that she could never enter that circle. Those two did not have a simple relationship like "liking" each other; it was something that could not be imitated.
In Christy's opinion, Clara, who—though it started as a political marriage—stood alongside those two and lived harmoniously, having found a skillful sense of distance and her own place, was an extraordinary existence.
For herself, it was just right to feel a sense of purpose in life by contributing to them and their territory as a loyal vassal. That was Christy's current thinking.
"Hmm... then, Christy also has to think about her future. Now that you're not a slave, you can't have Noein-sama take care of finding a marriage partner for you."
"Well, that's true... but rather, shouldn't you be the one who has to get married, Damian-san? You're thirty this year, right?"
"That's the thing... the Knight Commander told me that for a retainer, properly producing an heir is also loyalty to the lord. Ah, what a pain. No, it's not that I don't want to show loyalty to Noein-sama, but still."
Damian spoke somewhat hesitantly, perhaps possessing a sense of loyalty to Noein in his own way.
Watching him from the corner of her eye, Christy thought. Previously, Noein had asked her, "I hear you've been getting along well with Damian lately," and that must have meant exactly that.
She didn't dislike Damian. He was, well... an idiot in various ways, but he could hold a reasonably decent conversation with her since they saw each other every day, and since they were both retainers, their social status was perfectly compatible. Though it was hard to notice because of his messy hair and sloppily shaved beard, his face wasn't bad if one looked closely.
But could she really hold the reins of this absolute eccentric for the rest of her life? In a sense, she wondered if that might be as high a difficulty level as stepping between Noein and Matilda.
"Hmm? What's wrong, you've got such a serious look on your face."
"...It's nothing."
For now, let's put it on hold. Just as Christy answered shortly with that thought, they arrived at the workshop.